North Africa and Syria

The North Africa and Syria Educational Activities booklet features a selection of inquiry-based activities to encourage student exploration of the commemorative publication Australians in World War II: North Africa and Syria.

Teachers using these materials are encouraged to select specific activities, parts of activities or the broad selection of primary and secondary materials within this learning resource to suit their own purposes.

Australians in World War II: North Africa and Syria—Education Activities

Chapter 3: Bardia

Since October 1940, the 6th Division had been in the desert in reserve immediately west of the Delta. It was well prepared, although it had some equipment shortages. After Sidi Barrani the 4th Indian Division was to move to Abyssinia and be replaced by the 6th Division, now composed of the 16th, 17th and 19th Brigades. On 12 December, the 6th Division set off westward by rail and road and relieved the Indian troops south of Bardia a week later. Bardia, a harbour town about 25 kilometres west of the Egyptian frontier, was defended by a 30-kilometre arc of concrete underground bunkers behind an anti-tank ditch and barbed-wire barriers. This was supported by machine-gun posts and other obstacles, with the rear posts some 400 metres behind the main line. These positions could call on fire from more than one hundred artillery pieces. The Australians moved up to the Italian perimeter and patrols measured the anti-tank ditch, tested the wire and observed the Italian routine.

The plan of attack called for the 16th Brigade (2/1st, 2/2nd and 2/3rd Battalions) to cross the anti-tank ditch, blow gaps in the wire and take the posts west of Bardia. They were followed at daylight by the 2/5th and 2/7th Battalions of the 17th Brigade, supported by British armour. The 2/6th Battalion of the 17th Brigade was to create a diversion at the southern end of the perimeter. The 19th Brigade (2/4th, 2/8th and 2/11th Battalions) was held in reserve. On 2 January 1941, HMAS Voyager was part of the naval bombardment of the northern defence area of Bardia.

On 3 January the assault began, with the Australians dressed in greatcoats and leather jackets to keep out the intense cold of the desert at early morning, and heavily laden with weapons, tools, ammunition and rations. The guns opened fire at 5.30 am and within thirty minutes the infantry had crossed the anti-tank ditch and had breached the wire obstacles. Bill Travers described the opening scene:

First one gun flashed and the shells screamed over us to land about half a mile in front. Then millions of shells screamed over us and the sky became red with flashes and streaks.1

Some Italian posts and bunkers fought with determination, while others offered little resistance. The 2/3rd Battalion withstood a counter-attack from Italian tanks. Captain David Green, commanding B Company, 2/7th Battalion, and his second in command, Lieutenant Charles Macfarlane, were watching some Italians with their hands raised emerge from a post when a lone Italian put a rifle to his shoulder and shot Green through the chest. The Italian then dropped his rifle, put up his hands and climbed out of the post, smiling broadly. An angry Australian threw him back into the post and emptied his Bren gun into him. At the same time others demanded of Macfarlane that they should be allowed to bayonet all the other prisoners, but Macfarlane, now the only officer in the company, forbade them to take revenge, and was obeyed. The Italians in Post 25, on the skyline 500 metres away, having witnessed this incident, sent out an English-speaking emissary and surrendered without firing another shot. In three hours of fighting, Macfarlane’s company had been reduced to sixty-five men, but had taken six posts and widened the breach in the Italian line by 2000 metres.

While the 16th Brigade consolidated their position for the night, the Italians were still holding out against the 17th Brigade. The forward companies of the 17th Brigade fought on during the night, and at dawn the brigade commander found that ‘the position, which at midnight appeared to be hopeless, was secure’. On 4 January the Italian position was effectively cut in two, with the 16th Brigade encircling Bardia. Fighting ceased the following day, with the 19th Brigade overcoming resistance south of Bardia and the 16th Brigade and British armour mopping up. Italian losses were 40,000 captured, hundreds of guns, and much equipment and stores, including 700 needed motor vehicles. The 6th Division suffered 130 killed or died of wounds, and 326 wounded.

Donald Pierce recalled that the logistics of managing so many prisoners was a challenge:

But you just imagine having thirty-six thousand blokes there and the rest of ‘em are all Aussie diggers. Now they’ve gotta be fed, they’ve gotta have sufficient covering that they’re not gonna freeze to death and they've gotta have latrines dug and fixed up for them. All these things, and there’s nobody else except the poor bloody infantry to do that.2